


The Tempest

by MirrorMystic



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Creation Myth, F/F, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 05:31:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19370521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorMystic/pseuds/MirrorMystic
Summary: Long ago, when the World was young...The world did not look as it does today.There were no nations, no islands or lakes. There was simply the Land and the Sea.





	The Tempest

**Author's Note:**

> An excerpt from Dragonflight, Chapter Six: Our Lady of the Waves, which, upon rereading, I thought deserved to stand alone. Enjoy!

~*~  
  
Long ago, when the World was young...  
  
The world did not look as it does today.   
  
There were no nations, no islands or lakes. There was simply the Land and the Sea.   
  
In those days, the world was split into two neat halves. There was a single, vast continent, the dominion of Mother Mila. And there was a single, all-encompassing ocean.   
  
While humanity had tamed the earth, tending livestock and working the fields, the ocean was a wild, feral thing, riven by constant storms.   
  
Mother Mila is in the earth, and in the rain. Her rivers and rain clouds gave humanity life; but the sea was something else entirely, something inscrutable, terrifying. Humanity would gaze upon the waves with fear and awe. In those days, when all the land was united, the end of the land marked the edge of humanity’s dominion.   
  
The ocean kept this boundary. The end of the land was the end of the world.   
  
Mother Mila was beloved of her people, but even she sought solitude from time to time. The coast was the one place in her dominion where her disciples could not follow, held at bay by their deep, abiding fear of the sea.   
  
One day, Mila was walking along the coast, gazing out at the roiling sea and lightning flashing overhead.   
  
On that day, Mila saw her.   
  
She was basking on the shore, a beauty with rich, sun-kissed skin, her hair in pale curls falling across her shoulders like seafoam. She was sunning herself on a rock, her lithe form glistening in the twilight, and as she turned to face her visitor, unused to company--   
  
Mila saw her eyes, shining like a pearl in the deep, and her heart caught fast in her chest.   
  
She was Novis, goddess of the ocean, lady of the waves.   
  
And she was the most beautiful woman Mila had ever seen.   
  
Mila, Mother Mila, goddess of the earth and lady of the wood, a woman to whom kings and warlords swore fealty, found herself at a loss for words.   
  
And, before Mila could find her wits and speak, Novis merely smiled, and slipped away into the waves.   
  
Mila was intrigued. And she would not be deterred. She came to that coast, day after day, seeking the beauty by which she was so enthralled.   
  
The days spun into weeks; the weeks, into months. Mila, though surrounded by adoring followers and the riches of the earth itself, found herself craving those long walks along the shore, desperate for a glimpse of that blue-haired beauty. And Novis, though holding dominion over things deep and dark, found himself lingering in shallower waters, waters where the light could still reach.   
  
Theirs was a strange sort of courtship. It was Mila’s very first, truth be told. For Mila had many lovers, and had no shortage of disciples willing and eager to meet her needs. But Novis was no starry eyed priestess, bowing to her every whim. Novis was a goddess; her equal. Perhaps her only equal in all the world.   
  
But no matter how fond their time together became, there was still a hesitance, a distance, between them-- one that Mila found absolutely maddening.   
  
“Why do you pull away?” Mila asked, one day, as she lay on the shore, heedless of the sand in her gown. “Do you not desire me?”   
  
Novis shook her head. “There is nothing and no one I desire more.”   
  
“Then why?”   
  
“Because we are more than mere flesh,” Novis said, smiling with a sadness as deep as the sea. “We are the Land and the Ocean. We were made separate for a reason. We were not meant to collide.”   
  
“We are divine,” Mila insisted. “Our will is that of the world. Who could deny our union, if we tried?”   
  
“It is not so simple,” Novis said. “I cherish you, truly. But we cannot be more than this. To court me is to court disaster.”   
  
Mila rose, gazing deeply into Novis’ eyes.   
  
“...You fear me,” Mila whispered. “You fear for me.”   
  
“I fear for your people,” Novis murmured.   
  
Mila reached out, brushing her hand against Novis’ cheek. Below her, the tide rippled and shivered, curling up around her waist as if to embrace her.   
  
“Do not be afraid,” Mila intoned. “Love is… a sanctuary.”   
  
Novis took a shuddering breath, clasping a hand over Mila’s.   
  
“...No, my pearl,” Novis whispered. “Love is a tempest.”   
  
And it was in that moment that they realized-- this was love. Far more than mere curiosity, far more than fondness, more than loneliness. This was love. For good or ill.   
  
Their lips met, like waves upon the sand, like salt and sunlight and a seaborne breeze. Mila pulled Novis into her embrace, and the waves rose up to curl around them. They curled together, equal and opposite, two forces of nature perfectly entwined. They made love on that beach, embraced by the tide. They cried out together, in voices like rolling thunder and trembling earth, every touch searing like a forest fire, every kiss like a crash of lightning.   
  
They made love across the sands, among the waves, in both mortal flesh and in glimmering scales, iridescent in the light off the water. At last, they laid themselves to rest on the coast, Novis’ tail curled tight around Mila’s legs, Mila’s wings like a blanket around her shoulders.   
  
In that moment, the twin truths of love became plain.   
  
For as they lay there, tangled in one another, their sweat cooling in the sea breeze…   
  
Love was, indeed, their sanctuary. But love was also a tempest.   
  
They spent one blissful night together, only to awake to catastrophe.   
  
For, as Novis feared, she and Mila were not mere mortal flesh. They were divine, their souls bound to the sea and the land.   
  
In their passion, they had brought twin calamities upon the world-- a great flood sweeping across the continent, massive earthquakes collapsing cities into watery graves, some tremors so powerful that coastal cities broke from the mainland and were set adrift into the sea.   
  
Humanity cried out in fear and desperation. But they did not curse Mother Mila for her earthquakes. How could they? Mila gave them the land; gave them life. Mila provides.   
  
But the ocean, the awful, monstrous, terrifying ocean, saw fit to destroy Mila’s bounty. Her land, her crops, her people, all swept away by the cataclysmic flood.   
  
The death toll was catastrophic. Humanity beseeched the heavens, cursing the Ocean for the calamity brought upon them, seeking Mila’s counsel, Mila’s blessing, Mila’s salvation.   
  
Mila gave them no heed. She had taken many lovers in the past, but Novis was the only who could truly claim to have held her heart-- wholly, utterly, even if the pursuit of her love left humanity in ruins.   
  
But Novis looked upon the devastation that her union with Mila had brought humanity, and her heart ached with a grief as deep and dark as the sea.   
  
She could not hate the mortals who cursed her name. How could she? She had, indeed, brought ruin upon them. They, too, loved Mila. But Mila was ready to cast them all into the abyss if it meant Novis would be hers and hers alone.   
  
So Novis swore: never again would humanity suffer for her love. And with a heavy heart, she bade Mila farewell, and fled into the sea.   
  
Grief shattered Mila, and the Land along with it. The world grew into what we know of it today-- separate continents, adrift on the waves. The land, like Mila herself, would never be the same.   
  
But all was not lost. For while many in humanity cursed the ocean, there were a few who witnessed the Great Flood and gained a reverence for its power.   
  
The first sailors were those who worshipped Novis, Lady of the Waves, and gave her the respect she was due. For they knew the ocean did not only destroy; it could also love.   
  
Love is a tempest. But love is also a sanctuary. And while every island that sinks beneath the waves and every lake that dries up and withers away are reminders of what happens when the Land and Sea collide, a sailor knows the land and sea in harmony.   
  
Every sailor sails a ship made with wood that was born from the earth; a reminder to Novis, Our Lady of the Waves, of the love she once knew. And when storm clouds gather, sailors pray to Novis: for her to remember that she and Mila once held love in their hands, and the disaster that comes when you hold that love too tight.   
  
~*~   
  
_“Damn…” Mae murmured, leaning her chin on her hands. “...poor Mila…”_  
  
_“To be in love, truly and utterly, no matter the consequences…” Yuzu murmured thoughtfully._  
  
_“But that’s not fair,” Genny complained. “The only reason the Great Flood happened was because Mila and Novis were goddesses. If they were just ordinary mortal women, then they could have been together, no problem!”_  
  
_“Sometimes, it isn’t that simple,” Celica said gently._  
  
_Genny frowned, and looked away._  
  
_“So, the beach in that story,” Faye wondered. “That’s gotta be the shore of Novis Island, right? The place where Mila and Novis… er…”_  
  
_“What a fine place to build a church,” Rinea mused._  
  
_“The church doesn’t particularly care for that story,” Silque explained. “It shows a side of Mila that many people are uncomfortable with.”_  
  
_“What, the side that likes girls? The side that has tons of sex?” Mae huffed._  
  
_“How about the part where she was willing to let all of humanity drown if it meant staying with her girlfriend?” Boey said dryly._  
  
_“Meh,” Mae waved a hand. “We’ve all been there, haven’t we?”_  
  
_“This is just a legend, of course,” Silque admitted. “The Mila Faithful would have us believe that Mother Mila could do no wrong. They would write any of her tragic missteps out of history. But Novis knows. And Novis Island remembers.”_  
  
_“You didn’t answer my question, though,” Faye said. “Is that why they named it Novis Island? Because Mila and Novis did it on the beach?”_  
  
_“Well, according to the legend, it’s because the island is actually Novis’ corpse.”_  
  
_“Ewwww!”_   
  
~*~ 


End file.
